Crowded Elevator
by TheRedHerring760
Summary: Once In Which It Didn't Happen And Once In Which It Did. Two Red and Liz moments that take place in the Post Office elevator. Based off of a prompt that was "Elevator" centered (One-Shot)


Disclaimer : I own absolutely 0% of The Blacklist. These are stolen toys from Brokenkamp's treasure trove. I'm just borrowing them, giving them a go, and then I promise they will be returned in their proper positions once finished. I also do not own the lyrics / song this story was inspired by, it belongs to Incubus.

This is dedicated to jadenanne7, for being kind and for not suing me for emotional distress... ;)

* * *

_You help me to feel, see and know_

_Why all the while I've been so inquisitive._

_I can't go back now, cause now I know how it feels _

_to open up and breathe. _

_- Incubus_

* * *

_Once In Which It Didn't..._

Liz stands motionless in the center of the Bee Hive. Staring, but not truly seeing anything around her. She feels Meera grab her wrist, and guide her into the interrogation room, sits her down, and slowly began questioning her. Asking general questions, and she answers, but she is still dazed and zoned out.

"What happened yesterday?" Meera jots something down on her notepad.

Liz begins at the start, from months ago and the business with Zamani... even though Meera's question had nothing to do with that. Liz developes verbal diarrhea, she's just spewing off everything. Ending with the altercation in the warehouse.

"You cleared him." she accuses when she reaches the end, finding a focal point, and a budding anger.

"You lived with him." Meera narrows her eyes at Liz, but then seems to regret it instantly. She stands and leaves the room without another word.

They turned the thermostat up, and combined with the heat from the halogen light. Liz was sweating, tiny beads forming on her upper lip, forehead, droplets form at her clavicle slipping down the valley of her chest. She opens buttons of her blouse, squirms and adjusts the way she sits in the fold out chair. The sweat was stinging the open wound on her forehead, held simply together by a few butterfly stitches.

They've left her in here for close to thirteen hours now without food, without anything.

Thirteen hours...

She was being treated like an accomplice, when she really should be treated like the victim.

How could she have been so blind? How did she so easily let go of the nagging doubt in her gut, and carry on pretending. She should have listened, she should have known... She's a profiler, this is suppose to be her job; this is what she is trained to do.

"Selective blindness." she mutters to herself. Her voice was strained, isolated, and exhausted.

The door jingles as a key is set inside the lock. Liz's head lifts, and she ignores the throbs that rattle her brain. Aram peeks his head inside, looking frazzled "I shouldn't be in here," the words come out quickly, as he slips inside. "But they shouldn't be treating you like this. For God's sakes you're one of us..." he's holding a bottle of water, Liz watches as condensation instantly forms over the plastic. The heat of the room clinging to the chilled skin of the bottle. Her throat felt like she swallowed gallons of sand. Licking her dried lips as she yearns for the cool release it assured. "Here." he untwists the cap and holds it out to her.

Liz rips it from his hands like a feral animal, gulping so quickly she nearly chokes. She stops half way through the bottle, and presses it to her burning cheeks. All while Aram stared at her, his mouth slightly ajar. "Did they find Tom?" she questions weakly. Liz knows she's putting him in an awkward position, because he cannot truly tell her anything.

"I'm not suppose to-" he speaks under a heavy breath, watching her drink the remaining water. "No, they haven't."

"Don't leave evidence," Liz holds the empty bottle out to him. When he reaches over the interrogation table, she grabs his hand. He seems startled for a split second before he relaxes, she squeezes his hand gently. "Thank you." he nods, and smiles kindly.

"I'm really sorry Liz." Aram's eyes downcast as he shuffles out of the room. The cool air that sneaks its way inside is a short lived pleasure.

She lays her head down onto the table, her blouse sticking to her perspiring back. The water while full of relief reminded her empty stomach that it has been neglected for nearly an entire day. It grumbles, cramps in protest, she lays a palm over top and winces. Concentrates on the ticking of the clock, as another twenty minutes passes. An hour, then two more.

Liz falls asleep somewhere between hour sixteen and seventeen.

When the door swings open, she startles awake. Feels the heat from the room, and the cold from the Bee Hive as it collided with each other. Ressler stands in the frame of the door with his tie hanging loosely around his neck. His stern features, told her to remain quiet. She can hear words being said, but she doesn't compute a dime of information. Select words stand out in the mix of the others, _Searched Home, Found Grab Bag, Warehouse, Blood, Bodies_... "You're cleared. You can go." she stands dazed "Keen?" he steps forward, and stops. Hesitant.

Liz just stands, gripping the edge of the table. Her legs feel like a baby unsure on their feet. But she straightens her back, buttons the buttons she opened, and holds her head up high as she moves passed him. Shivers once she crosses the barrier between her chamber and the open space of the Bee Hive. People were moving frantically around her, as she maneuvered around them and all but ran for the lift.

Jabbing at the call button, sniffling loudly as every emotion that was numbed in temporary hibernation, woke and hiked upward. Seizing her, closing its thick fingers around her throat. Forcing her to feel the absolute betrayal. Her heart pulled, and coiled within itself tightly. Her red eyes were stinging as a threatening wetness forms.

She watches as the lift steadies into place, says a silent prayer that it is empty, and waits on baited breath as the doors split apart. Her shoulders slump, and she lets out a deep sigh when she sees Red in the center. "Wonderful" Liz speaks down to her shoes. The Universe had the cruelest sense of humor.

She moves inside, not lifting her eyes to meet his, making straight to the panel and pushing the top floor. Sinks off into the corner, and the sniffling begins once again. This time however it was not quiet, controllable sniffling it was stubborn child with a runny nose sniffling. She fought to control it, holding her arm up to her nose and plugging it into the crook between her forearm and upper arm. Struggling to breathe, she was hyperventilating in the corner of the slow moving elevator. All to aware that Red was witnessing it all.

She notices him begin to move, takes a step toward her, but then he turns on his heel and moves for the panel. She squeezes her eyes shut as it shakes and stops abruptly. Opens them once again, and stares at him with tears pooled in her eyes. "What in the hell do you think you are doing?" Liz mumbles into her arm, but it was utter gibberish to Red as he continued to move toward her. She backs completely up against the walling of the elevator, "I don't want to talk." shaking, she holds her arms out stopping his body inches from her own.

"Neither do I." His eyes warm and welcoming.

"I don't want to hear you say you were right." She whispers, watching as his hand raises from by his hip and cautiously reaches out to her face, proceeding once he was sure she wouldn't balk his movement. Gently removing the hair stuck to the blood of her wound. She watches anger rise to his eyes as he examines it.

"I wouldn't dare." the corner of his lip tugs upward in a half sort of smile.

"Then what are you doing?" She turns her head away from his fingers, turning her chin into her shoulder.

"Giving you my shoulder," He shrugs, and her brow furrows in question. But before she can bring it to words his arm slips behind her back and pulls her from the wall. The movement is jagged, and Liz braces her hands on top of his shoulders to stop herself from completely falling into him. "You can't hold it in forever," he whispers into her ear. "Let it go."

She grants herself this moment of support, like she did not too long ago in the park.

_You can trust me._

Wrapping her arms around him and tucking her face into the crook of his neck. Her body begins shaking like a leaf in a storm, as his arms held her tighter to him. He doesn't do much, besides pet a hand down the spine of her back. Tears stain his suit as she weeps openly into him. She muffles a painful scream into his shoulder, and returns back to choked and gurgled sobs. Until eventually it ceases and he just holds her, rocking their bodies ever so slightly.

The alarm begins to ring loudly in the elevator, it's been stopped for too long. So he gently guides their joined bodies from by the wall back to the panel and pushes the button back into place. He starts to pull away, but Liz clings tighter to him "Not yet" she exhales softly, inhales his aftershave. Her nose against the skin of his neck as she nuzzles him, a content sigh falls from her lips. She feels him conceal a laugh, and it causes Liz to feel childish. She can reason later that she was delusional from lack of sleep, vulnerable, and all those other things that justified her needing this.

They are a few floors away from their destination, and when Liz finally does pull herself from him. She stares into the eyes, that stare back into her own. They were emeralds floating down an endless river. But at this moment, the river was overwhelming their green sparkle, drowning them in a stormy blue. Their bodies remained pressed together, as her hands fall from his shoulders and span over his chest. There is a fleeting moment where she feels herself leaning forward. His eyes dilate, and his soft grip on her hip tightens a bit. "Thank you." she murmurs.

Her foot slides back, as the elevator dings and his grip loosens as Liz pulls away. The elevator shakes, shifts into it's place and the doors creak open.

He doesn't follow her, he grants her the space she now needed.

She breathes, and sees clearly for the first time since before Zamani.

* * *

_Once In Which It Did..._

"It was just a job." She's breathing heavily, as he moves up behind her. The tip of his nose ghosting over her neck, settling close to her left ear. He doesn't miss the little shudder her body lets free. "Which is over now..." her voice is shaken, the pitch too high. His view of her face was blocked, but he imagines her nose scrunching up in disgust at her apparent weakness.

Red grins. "It didn't feel like a job to me," His voice is thick, and husky. "Just because we were debriefed doesn't mean we have to stop pretending." she sways back, but catches herself. "Why don't you let your inhibitions go Lizzie?"

She marches forward, and he thinks that he upset her. He pushed too far. His eyebrow raises as he watches her pull the tie from her hair, allowing her hair to spill over her naked shoulders. There is a deep flushing in her cheeks, that ran a course down her neck and her exposed chest.

The halter top left little to the imagination.

Her pupils were like saucers, as she strode toward him, her palm pushing in the center of his chest, slamming him back against the wall roughly. "Is this what you want Red?" she breathes into his ear, pressing her body into his. His eyes slip shut when she bites down on his ear lobe "You want Penelope to come out to play?"

His laugh is thick, "No Lizzie..." his hand finds purchase on her waist, with little effort he twist them both and has her pinned up against the wall. "Penelope was for Lincoln. No. What I want is you."

she gasps when his hand skims along her exposed outer thigh. Lifting it up onto his hip, as he presses her further against the wall and onto himself. She moans before descending her mouth onto his. It's urgent and hungry, as she grips his neck too tightly. He lets out a primal grunt when she bites his lip, weaseling herself down from him. Her hands roaming under his suit jacket, as his slip into her silky hair, Red allows her to take control.

She pulls away, glances behind her at the red ascending numbers.

Before she assaults his neck with open mouth kisses and sharp nips, that leave him panting and bracing his hands on the wall for support. She arches her back, positing their hips flush against one another, and pulls him by the tie, capturing his lips once more. But with less vigor, and more purpose. Her tongue running slowly over his bottom lip, before mingling gently with his.

His sea legs hold steady as the elevator jolts to its stop. But she's slinking out from under his arms that encase her in. He turns, watching her adjust her disheveled hair, and skirt.

Walking out as if nothing transpired between the both of them.

Red lays his fingers on his raw lips, the corner which she nipped at, and smiles to himself.

* * *

_No BETA again, so any mistakes are mine... I did run through this a few times, but it was written quickly and I am sure there are errors. __Please accept this as my formal apology for "Bleeding Out"_

_And as my very heartfelt Thank You. When I posted Bleeding Out, I could not, and I mean could not have imagined the out pour of support, and words of encouragement that I received. It meant a lot to me, more than words could convey. I didn't expect so many of you to read it, or let alone enjoy it. I expected flames... _

_I believe I have sent messages to all of you who took the time to review Bleeding Out, those of which I could. To those who didn't receive a message, Thank You sincerely._

_I heard "Things happening in an Elevator" was a prompt within the fandom, and so this is my take on it. Hope it's okay, I am still very tepid about it, but I am going to let my inhibitions go and post. If you feel inclined to review, please do. Let me know if you liked it or if you hated it..._

- Red Herring


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